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| SportsTuesday, September 4, 2007 10:54 PM CDT |
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Egenes: Gladly saying so long to the daze of summer ’07
Toward the end of TV’s last great sitcom, “Seinfeld” gave us the Summer of George when George Costanza spent three months doing nothing after receiving a severance package from his employer, the New York Yankees. We’ve unofficially wrapped up the summer, and like my favorite neurotic little TV friend, it was one to remember — for worse, not for better. This year brought us one of the uglier national sports scenes in recent memory. Cheats, charlatans, fakes and frauds, lives cut too short and police blotters too long. Yet, sports viewership seemingly never has been higher. If it will sell, it’s on TV with live cut-ins, ridiculous on-the-field halftime interviews and the absurd live mid-game chats from the dugout. It is little wonder, though, since everyone loves a train wreck. The summer of 2007 was one derailment after the other. Josh Hancock got us started. He got drunk, got behind the wheel of his SUV and caused an accident that cost him his life at 29. What a waste. By some saving grace, he was the only one we lost. And, it makes us keep watching. Barry Bonds held the front pages of sports sections and a good part of our summer hostage with a fraudulent pursuit of sports’ biggest personal prize. Sadly, he dethroned a man known as much for his character as his clout and crowned himself king of the home run, while the commissioner of his league stuffed his hands in his pockets. And, it makes us keep watching. If Bonds didn’t spike our suspicion with his surreptitious strength and bloated hat size, NBA referee Tim Donaghy taught us to become wary of whistleblowers. Now, not only are the combatants on watch, but so too are the men of mediation. The NBA says it has found no evidence of gambling by other refs. Believe that if you want. And, it makes us keep watching. Michael Vick was the summer’s cleanup hitter, taking us to what hopefully is the final frontier of sports’ bad boys. He was the cash and, pardon the term, brains behind a despicable dogfighting ring and the charred conscience behind the slaughter of dogs that lost. He ran as long as he could before publicly finding the words, “I’m sorry.” I’m sorry, but “I’m sorry” means nothing anymore. He later said he found Jesus — a statement we credit more to public relations than to deity. Jocks being bad is nothing new, of course. But there was a time when they hid it better, when the blood-thirsty mainstream media didn’t have a news cycle that regenerated by the minute. But if we’re going to sink our trust and hopes in men for their physical talent, despite them being mental midgets, then we’ve got disappointment coming and deservedly so. Charles Barkley started this discussion a number of years ago when he said athletes are not role models. I used to disagree with him. Little kids, and even adults, look up to the stars of pro sports, I thought. We need them as role models. We need to point our youth toward them and say, “There’s your hero.” What a mistake. Parents who point their little cherubs to jocks as role models need a seminar. Turns out, Sir Charles had it right indeed. Athletes aren’t role models; they need role models. Mike Egenes is Pantagraph sports editor. To leave him a voice mail, call (309) 820-3246. By e-mail: megenes@pantagraph.com. His Hit & Run blog is at www.pantagraph.com/blogs. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Dan wrote on Sep 4, 2007 5:37 PM:
Upset wrote on Sep 4, 2007 3:51 PM:
Agree wrote on Sep 4, 2007 3:41 PM:
naive wrote on Sep 4, 2007 2:00 PM:
Nice wrote on Sep 3, 2007 8:40 PM:
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